Correspondence
Email sent to Auchan's press office.
The email said that the company's supplier Cité Marine sourced seafood products from Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Products, which has received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under a state-imposed labor transfer program. The email also asked for comment.
Email sent to Auchan's press office outlining additional supply chain connections to Uyghur forced labor at Chinese seafood processing plants. The email asked: 1. Could you confirm whether white fish sourced from Qingdao Tianyuan or Qingdao Lian Yang has been used in any of the Cap Océan branded products sold by Auchan since 2018? 2. Could you confirm whether white fish sourced from Qingdao Tianyuan or Qingdao Lian Yang has been used in any Auchan own-brand products supplied by Cité Marine and sold by Auchan since 2018? 3. Could you confirm whether white fish sourced from Qingdao Tianyuan or Yantai Sanko has been used in any Findus products sold by Auchan since 2018?
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed two contact addresses for Auchan: "We previously emailed Auchan on July 4, 2023, and August 25, 2023, concerning our ongoing investigation into the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry. Since then, we have uncovered additional evidence which we wanted to raise with you regarding Auchan in Portugal.
We have investigators on the ground in China who have been engaging with labor brokers directly involved with the transfer of North Korean workers to factories in China. Through this and other investigative means, including collecting online footage from the plants and interviews with workers recently returned to North Korea from China, we’ve found large numbers of North Korean workers at a range of seafood processing plants in Liaoning province, on China’s border with North Korea.
We have information that as recently as October 2023, there were hundreds of North Korean workers at Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff in Liaoning.
According to trade records seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project, Brasmar Comercio de Produtos Alimentares was the consignee for shipments of seafood from Donggang Haimeng in 2021. The trade records also show that Riberalves was the consignee for shipments from Haimeng in 2021.
Packaging analysis shows that cod products sold at Auchan are supplied by Brasmar and by Riberalves.
In light of this, we have the following questions for Auchan:
- While we understand that you may not be aware of the above issues, we want to ask if Auchan has any comment to make in response to this email?
- Can you confirm or deny if any seafood from Donggang Haimeng has been supplied to Auchan by any supplier since December 2019?"